News Detail

Prof. Janet Hering re-elected by the Federal Council

Janet Hering will take up her fourth term as Director of Eawag in 2019. Today, the Federal Council re-elected her based on the recommendation of the ETH Board. One of Janet Hering's important goals is that Eawag can integrate and synthesize knowledge from a wide variety of areas and thus make it useful in practice.

Under the leadership of Janet Hering, Eawag has consolidated its position as one of the world's leading water research institutes since 2007. Eawag's scientific excellence is reflected in the very high profile of its specialist publications on topics such as water pollution with chemicals, removal of pollutants or drinking water supply. In Switzerland, Janet Hering strengthened Eawag's network with water protection players from administration and associations. Eawag combines natural, engineering and social sciences under one roof. Eawag will also establish a new centre dedicated specifically to bringing together existing knowledge from these three areas. In this way, gaps between knowledge production and knowledge use can be closed even better.

Janet Hering is a chemist and does her own research on the treatment of contaminated water into drinking water, on the biochemical behaviour of trace metals and increasingly on the exchange of knowledge between research and politics. She received her PhD in Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1988 and was Professor of Environmental Science and Technology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) from 1996. In 2007 she took over the management of Eawag, combined with a professorship for environmental biogeochemistry at ETH Zurich. From 2007 to 2010 she represented the four research institutes of the ETH Domain (PSI, WSL, Empa and Eawag) on the ETH Board. Since 2010 she is also Professor of Environmental Chemistry at the EPFL. Janet Hering is a member of various renowned national and international committees in the water sector. In October, the Californian water research institute NWRI awards her the prestigious Clarke Prize, among other things for her commitment to interdisciplinary cooperation.